MANAGING

INFORMATION
TECHNOLOGY
FIFTH EDITION

CHAPTER 2

COMPUTER SYSTEMS
E. Wainright Martin  Carol V. Brown  Daniel W. DeHayes
Jeffrey A. Hoffer  William C. Perkins
Q1: What does a manager need to know
about computer hardware?
Q2: What’s the difference between a client
and a server?
Q3: What does a manager need to know
about software?
Q4: What buying decisions do you make?
What a manager needs to know about hardware

CPU & Data Bus Main Memory

 CPU Speed  Size
 Cache memory  Speed
 Data bus speed
 Data bus width
Magnetic Disk Optical Disk - CD
 Size  Up to 700 MB
 Channel type and speed  CD-ROM
 Rotational speed  CD-R
 Seek time  CD-RW
What a manager needs to know about hardware

Optical Disk - DVD

 Up to 4.7 GB
 DVD-ROM
 DVD-R
 DVD-RW
Monitor - CRT Monitor - LCD
 Viewing size  Viewing size
 Dot pitch  Pixel pitch
 Optimal resolution  Optimal resolution
 Special memory  Special memory
What a manager needs to know about software
Client Server

 Windows  Windows Server

 Intel  Unix Server
 Mac OS  Linux Server
 PowerPC
 Intel

 Unix
 Sun

 Linux
 Just about anything
A business manager’s role in hardware & software
specifications
Client
 CPU speed
 Size of main memory
 CD or DVD and type
 Monitor type and size
 Windows, Mac, or Linux
 PC applications
 Browsers
 Requirements for the
client side of client-server
applications
Server
 No role in the
specification of server
hardware (except
possibly a budgetary one)
 Specify requirements for
the server side of client-
server applications
 Work with technical
personnel to test and
accept software
 EVOLUTION OF COMPUTER
SYSTEMS
First Generation of Computers

1. Vacuum tubes

1946-1959

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 EVOLUTION OF COMPUTER
SYSTEMS
Second Generation of Computers

1. Vacuum tubes
2. Transistors

1946-1959 1957-1963

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 EVOLUTION OF COMPUTER
SYSTEMS
Third Generation of Computers

1. Vacuum tubes
2. Transistors
3. Integrated circuits

1946-1959 1957-1963 1964-1979

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 EVOLUTION OF COMPUTER
SYSTEMS
Fourth Generation of Computers

1. Vacuum tubes
2. Transistors
3. Integrated circuits
4. VLSI (very-large-scale integrated) circuits

1946-1959 1957-1963 1964-1979 1980 - present

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 EVOLUTION OF COMPUTER
SYSTEMS
The Development of Minicomputers

Data General
DEC
Hewlett-Packard
IBM

1946-1959 1957-1963 1964-1979 1980 - present

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 EVOLUTION OF COMPUTER
SYSTEMS
The Development of Microcomputers

Apple
IBM PC
1981

1946-1959 1957-1963 1964-1979 1980 - present

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 BASIC COMPONENTS
OF COMPUTER SYSTEMS

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Table 2.1 Evolution of Intel Microprocessor Page 26-27
 BASIC COMPONENTS
OF COMPUTER SYSTEMS
Underlying Structure

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Figure 2.4 Logical Structure of Digital Computers Page 28
 BASIC COMPONENTS
OF COMPUTER SYSTEMS
Input/Output

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 BASIC COMPONENTS
OF COMPUTER SYSTEMS
Input/Output

Terminal
 Simpler than a PC
 Designed strictly for input and output
 Has keyboard and screen
 Does not have a processor
 Connected to computer with
telecommunication line
 Allows user to key data directly into computer

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 BASIC COMPONENTS
OF COMPUTER SYSTEMS
Input/Output

Terminal
 Special types:
Point-of-sale (retail)
ATMs (banking)

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 BASIC COMPONENTS
OF COMPUTER SYSTEMS
Input/Output
 Common input methods:
 Magnetic ink character recognition (MICR) –
used to process bank checks
 Optical character recognition (OCR) – directly
scans typed, printed, or handwritten material
 Imaging – inputs digital form of documents and
photos
 Bar code labeling – scans bar codes on
packages or products, and reads into computer

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 BASIC COMPONENTS
OF COMPUTER SYSTEMS
Input/Output

Common output methods:

 Print – output to paper using various types of
printers
 Computer output microfilm (COM) – microfilm
generated for archive copies in small space
 Voice response units – computer recognizes
input, generates verbal response messages

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 BASIC COMPONENTS
OF COMPUTER SYSTEMS
Input/Output

Multimedia –
relatively new term for computer input and output
in the form of text, graphics, sound, still images,
animations, and/or video

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 BASIC COMPONENTS
OF COMPUTER SYSTEMS
Computer Memory

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 BASIC COMPONENTS
OF COMPUTER SYSTEMS
Computer Memory

Memory
 All data flows to and from memory
 Divided into cells:
Each has a unique address
Memory cell types:
 Byte – stores one character of data
 Word – stores two or more characters of data

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 BASIC COMPONENTS
OF COMPUTER SYSTEMS
Bits and Coding Schemes

 Each memory cell is a set of circuits

 Each circuit is on or off (represented by 1 or 0)
 Each circuit corresponds to a bit (binary digit)
 Most computers – 8 bits (circuits) represents a
character (byte)
 2 common bit coding schemes used today:
 ASCII
 EBCDIC

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 Bits and Coding Schemes

. . . . . .
. . . . . .
. . . . . .

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Figure 2.4 Computer Coding Schemes Page 32
 BASIC COMPONENTS
OF COMPUTER SYSTEMS
Arithmetic/Logical Unit

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 BASIC COMPONENTS
OF COMPUTER SYSTEMS
Arithmetic/Logical Unit

Consists of VLSI circuits

on a silicon chip
Carries out:
 arithmetic – add, subtract,
multiply, divide …
 logical operations –
comparing two numbers

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 BASIC COMPONENTS
OF COMPUTER SYSTEMS
Computer Files

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 BASIC COMPONENTS
OF COMPUTER SYSTEMS
Computer Files
When power is off, everything stored in
memory is lost
Computer files are used to store data long
term
File storage devices:
 Magnetic tape drives, disk drives, floppy
drives
 Optical CD or DVD drives

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 BASIC COMPONENTS
OF COMPUTER SYSTEMS
Computer Files

Sequential access files

 Usually stored on magnetic tape drives
Direct access files
 Stored on Direct Access Storage Devices
(DASD) - magnetic disk drives

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 BASIC COMPONENTS
OF COMPUTER SYSTEMS
Computer Files

Types of DASD
 Fixed (hard) drives

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Figure 2.7 Diagram of a Magnetic Disk Drive Page 34
 BASIC COMPONENTS
OF COMPUTER SYSTEMS
Computer Files

Types of DASD
 Removable:
Floppy drives
Zip drives
Newest: portable
DASD for PCs –
keychain drive

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Figure 2.8 Iomega’s Mini USB Keychain Drive Page 34
 BASIC COMPONENTS
OF COMPUTER SYSTEMS
Computer Files
 Newer type of DASD
 Optical Disk Storage

 CD-ROM 700 megabytes read-only

 CD-R recordable
 CD-RW rewritable

 DVD-ROM 4.7 gigabytes read-only

 DVD-R recordable
 DVD-RW rewritable

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 BASIC COMPONENTS
OF COMPUTER SYSTEMS
Control Unit

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 BASIC COMPONENTS
OF COMPUTER SYSTEMS
Control Unit

Controls computer to take advantage of

speed and capacity of other components
Directed by list of operations (program)
that tells control unit what to do
Uses the stored-program concept

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 THE STORED-PROGRAM CONCEPT

Program – list of what computer needs to

do for an application
Instruction – each individual step or
operation in a program
Control unit – carries out one step or
instruction at a time at electronic speed

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 THE STORED-PROGRAM CONCEPT
Note: One of the primary measures of
power of computers is the number of
instructions it can execute in a given
period
MIPS – millions of instructions per second
executed by the control unit

MFLOPS – millions of floating point operations per

second

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 THE STORED-PROGRAM CONCEPT

Top Seven Desktop PCs – Power System

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Table 2.2 Benchmarking Page 39
 EXTENSIONS TO THE BASIC
MODEL
Communications within
Terminals
the Computer System

Magnetic
Tape Units

Magnetic
Disk Units

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Figure 2.9 Data Channels and Controllers Page 40
 Data Channel
A specialized I/O Processor that takes
over function of device communication
from the CPU
Its role is to corrects for speed mismatch
between slow peripheral devices and very
fast CPU
It includes buffer storage

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 Controllers
A highly specialized microprocessor that
manages the operation of the attached
devices to free up the CPU and the data
channel from these tasks.

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 EXTENSIONS TO THE BASIC
MODEL
Cache Memory
 High-speed storage to
temporarily hold data from
main memory waiting to be
processed
 Entire blocks of data
moved at one time into
cache
 Enables CPU to execute
much faster
 Also incorporated into
DASD controllers
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Figure 2.10 Cache Memory Page 40
 EXTENSIONS TO THE BASIC
MODEL
Multiple Processor Configurations

Multiprocessor
Symmetric multiprocessor (SMP)
Vector facility
Parallel processor (PP)
Massively parallel processor (MPP)

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 TYPES OF COMPUTER SYSTEMS
Microcomputers
Cost in $ MFLOPS Major Vendors Primary Uses

200-3,000 20-400 IBM, Dell, Personal computing

Hewlett-Packard, Client in client/server
Gateway, Fujitsu, applications
Toshiba
Web client
Small business
processing

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 TYPES OF COMPUTER SYSTEMS
Workstation/Midrange Systems
Cost in $ MFLOPS Major Vendors Primary Uses

3,000-1,000,000 40-4,000 IBM, Dell, Departmental

Hewlett-Packard, computing
Gateway, NEC, Specific applications
NCR, Fujitsu, (office automation,
Toshiba, Sun CAD, other graphics)
Microsystems
Midsized business
general processing
Server in client/server
applications
Web server, file
server, LAN server

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 TYPES OF COMPUTER SYSTEMS
Mainframe Computers
Cost in $ MFLOPS Major Vendors Primary Uses

1,000,000 - 200 - IBM, Fujitsu, Large business

20,000,000 8,000 Groupe Bull, general processing
Unisys Server in client/server
applications
Large Web server
Widest range of
applications

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 TYPES OF COMPUTER SYSTEMS
Supercomputers
Cost in $ MFLOPS Major Vendors Primary Uses

1,000,000 - 4,000 - IBM, Hewlett- Numerically intensive

100,000,000 100,000,000 Packard, Dell, scientific calculations
Hitachi, Cray, Very large Web
NEC server

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